MOSCOW -- For those of you who have been following the child
custody nightmare of Fred Leas and his four children, keep the
prayers coming because it appears that we are on the verge of
reporting the type of victory that we all like to see: David toppling
Goliath.

Fred Leas, 51, is a kind, simple man who believes that his children
are the most important thing on earth. It is his love for his four
young children, Shane, 17, Scott, 15, Audry, 13 and Hattie, 11, that
has been slowly and systematically undermining the alliance of evil
that has been ruling Latah county for many years.

Keep in mind as you read this saga that it begins when these children
were 7 years younger than they are today. What makes me the
maddest is how all these darn state employees who are supposed to
protect children have done everything in their power to ruin my
kids'childhoods -- and they have done an excellent job of that,
commented Leas.

Finally, after seven years, people involved in the conspiracy are
telling on each other, property owners are protesting the estimated
$250,000 their county has spent persecuting this man, citizens are
writing letters to the editor, local newspapers are writing articles
that are at least not unfavorable to Leas' side of the story and the
truth is beginning to surface.

The Leas nightmare began February 28, 1993, when Leas' then wife Ruth
fell on the ice while the couple was entertaining friends and then
later blamed Leas for the injuries.

"This entire deal could have been avoided if they (Latah county)
would have let Tammy Palmer testify, said Leas.

Palmer was with the Leases that night and knows that there was no way
Leas could have hurt his wife and that he even offered to take her to
the hospital.

That night, Ruth took off and thus began her attempts to ruin Leas'
life, have him thrown in prison and make sure that he was never able
to see his kids again.

All of this has been accomplished with the apparent approval of the
Latah County Sheriff's Department, Latah County County Prosecutor
Bill Thompson and Deputy Prosecutor Robin Eckman, District Judge John
Stegner (and Stegner's first cousin State Probation Officer Tom
Blewett), Child Psychologist Greg Wilson, Idaho Legal Aid Attorney
Maureen Laflin (a longtime friend of Judge Stegner) and too many
Child Protective Service bureaucrats to name.

Incidentally, Representative June Judd (R-St. Maries), who has been
supportive of Leas and knows the truth, has stated that, considering
Stegner's longtime friendship with Laflin, he never should have heard
anything in regard to this case.

The conspiracy seems to center around the man Ruth eventually
married. Paul Mohr, a violent and perverse man who is a known drug
dealer, drug user, and convicted pedophile, was apparently able to
rally this coven conspiracy of elected and unelected officials
through his underworld connections to them. After reporting this
story since November, 1998, we believe that Mohr was owed favors of
silence and thus began Leas' descent into hell.

Since February, 1998, Leas has been in court over 130 times. He has
never been late nor has he missed a date. County employees who are
not part of the conspiracy greet Leas warmly and seem to know the
truth. On the other hand, they ignore Ruth when they see her and
even have obvious disdain for her. Such evidence would
not hold up in a court even if law were in it, but it certainly
speaks volumes in assessing the character of the two people.

The short list of injustices against this man

Leas has been subjected to the following injustices, with the
blessing if not active participation of Thompson and the court, since
Ruth left Leas for Mohr.

* He was falsely accused of the sodomy rape at gunpoint of Christine
Elder (Elder later confessed that Mohr sodomized her and told her to
file a false police report stating that Leas committed the heinous
crime at gunpoint in an effort to have him locked up for a long time.
Thompson refused to prosecute the Mohrs and would not grant Elder
prosecutorial immunity in trade for her confession after she fled the
area ashamed of herself).

* Leas was framed with felony possession of marijuana though everybody
who knows him knows that he would never have a quantity of the
illegal drug in his possesstion and blood tests for marijuana came up
negative. No attempt was ever made to find the person who actually
owned the weed.

* Leas was accused of vandalizing the Mohr's car by shooting out its
windows. It was later proved that they vandalized their own property
and filed false police reports blaming Leas for the damage. Thompson
refused to prosecute the Mohrs for filing a false police report.

* When he could not get child protective people to listen to him even
though Mohr was a drug dealer, a sexual pervert and an alcoholic who
threatened to kill Leas' children if they ever told anybody what a
creep he was, he kidnapped his children and kept them in
hiding in South Dakota until he was captured and the children
returned to their mother. Leas was prosecuted for custodial
interference, sentenced to 78 days in jail, less 48 days for time
served and probation. The boys will not stay with their mother.
Period. If forced, they will run away to be with their father. The
girls have been forced by the state and their own fear to stay with
the Mohrs.

* The Mohrs, without asking the court or informing Leas, moved the
girls to Roswell, New Mexico. Though Thompson prosecuted Leas for
custodial interference when he moved the children out of state in
violation of a court order, Thompson, to this day, refuses to
prosecute the Mohrs for the same crime for which Leas is still under
probation.

* The Mohrs have committed several felony crimes that can be proven
with evidence, Thompson refuses to prosecute.

* Thompson arranged a false polygraph of Christine Elder.

* Tom Blewett has been attempting to violate Leas into prison through
manufacturing evidence and placed a slanderous letter in Leas' file
that accused him of taking liberties with his daughters.

* Thompson and Eckman conspired with Detective Mark Benson to falsely
charge Leas with the rape of a 15-year-old girl who was closely
associated with the sheriff's office.

* Maureen Laflin attempted to coerce Elder to sign an affidavit
stating that Leas had oral sex with his little girls (That was the
straw for Elder who then knew that Leas was innocent and that all of
these people were conspiring against him).

And that is just to name a few things to which this man has been
subjected. After seven years of knowing that your children are in
the custody of an alcoholic, drug addict mother who lives with a
violent pedophile, drug dealer husband; after seven years of knowing
that at any time a county agent could arrest you, beat you and
imprison you for imaginary crimes; after seven years of being
demonized by the press and looked upon as a criminal by everybody in
positions of authority even though you are only guilty of loving your
children and desiring to provide them with a decent home; after seven
years of being one man and the object of a conspiracy that intends to
put you in prison to protect the underworld activities of some people
in Latah county government, patient, decent, dedicated Fred Leas is
about to topple a corrupt coven of county machinery that has
victimized many people for fun and profit.

Here's the latest:

In late November, Judge Stegner recused himself from Leas' probation
violation case because it was learned in open court that the chief
witness against Leas for probation violation, Probation Officer Tom
Blewett, was the judge's cousin. The two have been doing everything
in their power to throw Leas in prison so he cannot continue exposing
this whole mess.

By December 3, Judge Stegner had been reassigned to the case by Judge
Schilling.

Leas' attorney Steve MaHaffey filed objections to Stegner's
reassignment in January. Stegner recused himself once again. The case
has been reassigned to Judge Reinhardt (Schilling has washed his
hands of this matter by claiming a conflict due to his secretary
having been a legal assistant at Idaho Legal Aid while that entity
was representing Ruth. It is interesting that Schilling would
reassign Stegner even though his cousin was Leas' probation officer,
but claims conflict due to his secretary).

Late January: Several years ago, Leas paid friend of the
court Child Psychologist Greg Wilson of Pullman, Washington,
$1,500 to make a videotape of his girls. The tape, approximately
three hours in duration, is enough to make you sick, said
Leas. The tape describes in detail what life with mommy and Mohr is
like. Wilson will not proivide Leas with the tape. Thompson, who has
seen the tape and should, if his interest was the safety of the
children and justice, want the tape to be admitted as evidence, will
not allow release of the tape. That tape alone would expose what this
entire travesty is all about. Leas has employed a Subpeona Duces
Tecum in an effort to compel Wilson to give the tape up because,
aside from all of the other reasons, it is Fred's property. All Leas
needs is an Idaho Judge to sign the Subpeona, Leas will carry the
Subpeona to Washington State District Judge Lydon, who would command
Wilson to give up the tape.

In other words, all Leas needs is an honest Idaho judge to sign a
domument that will compel a Washington judge to turn a tape over so
that justice may prevail.

The Subpeona was presented to Magistrate Greg Kalbfleish who refused
to sign it. Kalbfleish ruled in favor of Leas April, 1999, by ruling
that his girls must be allowed to spend the summer in Idaho with
their father. Kalbfleish has since been unsympathetic to Leas and is
now an apparent accomplice to the travesty that is such an
embarrassment to Latah county.

Leas' attorneys plan to file a Affidavit of Prejudice against
Kalbfleish. It turns out that his wife is a Child Protective Services
attorney out of Lewiston.

A meeting was held before the Board of Latah County Commissioners in
January. Several property owners attended and vented their anger at a
county that would spend so much money to persecute an innocent man
and expressed their support for Leas. Another meeting is planned and
a petition is being circulated to show the county commissioners that
people are watching.

According to Leas, Commissioners Paul Kimmel and Sam Duncan are
sympathetic to Leas problems. Commissioner Lorecca Stauber, however,
is apparently attempting to continue covering for the actions of the
other conspirators.

You can call the Latah County Courthouse operator at (208) 882-8580
and ask to speak to Thompson, Stegner or the county commissioners.